Interpol Drops Red Notice for Ex-Justice Minister

Interpol has withdrawn ‘red notice’ for Georgia’s ex-justice minister Zurab Adeishvili, who is wanted by Tbilisi for number of criminal charges. His allies believe the charges are politically motivated According to the Georgian website civil.ge:

“On April 9, 2015 the Georgian chief prosecutor’s office was notified by Interpol general secretariat that it has revoked red notice against Zurab Adeishvili,” the Georgian prosecutor’s office said in a statement released on April 14 after it emerged that ‘red notice’ against Adeishvili was taken down from Interpol website and his name removed from its wanted list.The Georgian prosecutor’s office said that in its notification Interpol cited “granting of a refugee status to Adeishvili by one of the countries” as the reason behind its decision to revoke red notice against Georgia’s ex-justice minister; prosecutor’s office said it does not know which country it was.”

Tragically, Red Notices frequently are used to stop people from getting refugee status, but once they get the status, Interpol can be persuaded to remove the notice. In the case of Mr. Adeishvili, the Georgian authorities were apparently upset because the notice was removed without giving them an opportunity to respond. In a separate statement the Georgia prosecutor proposed adding asylum notations to I-link (Interpol’s database) rather than deleting the notice.